Bill would put all warrants in FBI system

Boston Globe
Nov. 09, 2006

Governor Mitt Romney filed legislation yesterday that would require local police departments to put all felony and serious misdemeanor arrest warrants into a national FBI database. This would enable any police department in the state to check quickly whether a suspect has a recent history of troublemaking or violence, the governor's office said. Currently, local police chiefs have discretion over which warrants enter the database, and when. Romney said police must confront suspects often without knowing the full extent of the danger that might be presented. Under the bill, police would have to enter violent crime and narcotics trafficking warrants within 24 hours, and other felonies and serious misdemeanors within 72 hours.

Lawyer appointed to state ethics panel
Governor Mitt Romney named Boston lawyer David L. Veator to the State Ethics Commission yesterday. Veator was general counsel for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation from 2003 until earlier this year, was chief legal counsel to Jane Swift, acting governor, in 2002, and general counsel for the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation from 1998 to 2002. "David Veator has extensive experience in the public sector, and a reputation for honesty and integrity," Romney said in a statement. Veator replaces Owen Todd, a Republican whose five-year term expired. The five-member commission enforces the Commonwealth's conflict-of-interest laws.

Woman to be charged with murder
A 30-year-old Boston woman is scheduled to be arraigned today in Boston Municipal Court on murder charges, police said. Kimya Foust-Davis was arrested yesterday afternoon, accused of killing Walter Jackson, whom police found dead on Oct. 26 at a home on Harold Street in Roxbury.

Man's body found near busy intersection
A body was found yesterday in a wooded area off of Malcolm X Boulevard near Roxbury Street. Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the victim was a man, and that there were no signs of trauma. The cause and manner of his death will not be released until an autopsy is completed, she said. Police gathered yesterday in front of the marked-off crime scene at the busy intersection and looked into the woods, where orange cones marked evidence. The body was found just before 1 p.m.

TAUNTON
Woman has heart attack during a blaze
A woman was flown to a Boston hospital after she had a heart attack during an apartment fire in Taunton last night. The woman, whom fire officials did not identify, was found by emergency personnel inside the apartment at 165 Winthrop St. The one-alarm fire, which broke out just before 8:30 p.m., was contained to the apartment and was put out within 30 minutes, fire officials said. The woman was sent to Morton Hospital before being transported by helicopter to New England Medical Center. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

REVERE
DSS investigates after home condemned
The state Department of Social Services is investigating a Revere woman whose former residence was condemned due to sanitary conditions, Denise Monteiro, spokeswoman for the DSS, said last night. Andrea Watson, identified in media reports as the children's rights advocate who co-founded Parents for Residential reform, has been living at a new residence for at least three weeks with her two children and two grandchildren, Monteiro said. Officials visited her at her new home, after a relative of Watson's called to request help, Monteiro said. DSS officials determined that her family was safe, Monteiro said.

CONCORD, N.H.
GOP agrees to abide by do-not-call list
The National Republican Congressional Committee has halted a telephone program after coming to an agreement with the state attorney general's office. The committee had said last week that a state law disallowing automated calls to numbers on the Federal Do Not Call registry did not apply to the GOP because it is a national organization. The attorney general's office disagreed. While federal law allows political organizations to call numbers on the Do Not Call registry, a 2004 New Hampshire law does not. The calls ran for almost a week with the intent of helping embattled US Representative Charles F. Bass, a Republican running for reelection.